Cursed Movies…Really? OH YA!

Curse Of The Omen (Notes) – YouTube 48 min. – Bob Larson comments

Robert Munger has the idea of a little boy as “The Antichrist.” Munger contacts Harvey Bernhardt.

Munger ultimately warns of potential danger from Satan’s interference as a movie that he does not want to be made.

– 3 mos. before filming begins, The Omen’s star Gregory Peck’s son shoots himself. Peck grief stricken

– Peck’s trans-Atlantic flight struck by lightening; engine catches fire. Same experience for Producer Mace Neufeld. His plane is also struck by lightening.

– The Omen’s director Richard Donner (of later Superman fame) along with cameraman and Producer have their charter flight in London taken from them by a higher bidding Chinese group. A bird strike downs their plane after take off with the plane striking the pilot’s family in a station wagon on the highway after they had just dropped off “Daddy.” All were fatalities.

David Selzer, the screenwriter who wrote the 1976 supernatural horror film The Omen; 6-6-76 release, found himself entangled in a series of bizarre real life incidents that actually followed him to his home. In addition, his flight to London was struck by lightening like Peck and Neufeld’s flights had been.

– Harvey Stephens is cast as Damien: the young antichrist. Apparently, Harvey was “a real ball buster.”

– The “devil dog” Rottweilers conduct a vicious attack against the stuntman in the graveyard scene. The stuntman passed out and had to be rushed to the hospital.

– The baboons in the animal park terrorized little Damien and his mother (Lee Remick – who died an untimely death from cancer at 55) while trying to escape the area in their stalled car.

– Another animal attack would have fatal consequences after the film crew left a door open and a tiger pierced the skull of The Omen animal trainer Sydney Bamford the day after filming was completed. (After this episode, Bernhardt began wearing a cross as he began to realize that “Someone (the devil perhaps – JB) did not want this film to get made.”

– An IRA bomb blast in London took place before Peck and film company personnel were to arrive at an elegant restaurant. IRA bombings were prevalent throughout The Omen’s filming. Film director Richard Donner, says he does not believe in curses of any kind, but was “scared that he might be next.”

– The curse followed the crew when stunt coordinator Alf Joint had an awkward fall off of a roof while working on his next picture. He said from the hospital, where he appeared looking like Lee Remick from the movies’ hospital scene, where he made the hospital fall into the ambulance, “he felt as though he were pushed from the roof” at a specific point where he landed between his cushioning.

– Most eerie of all, John Richardson, designer of the decapitation scene where a sheet of glass on the back of a truck takes the head from Peck’s photographer side-kick (actor David Warner), has a head on car collision (2 mos. after release of The Omen on Friday; August the 13^th of course) that effectively cuts the body in half of his girl friend and assistant riding with him, Liz Moore. (Richardson has no idea where the car came from etc.) When Richardson gained consciousness and emerged from his car, there was a sign in front of him that read, “Omenn 66.6 km.” Bear in mind what Harvey Bernhardt stated, and news headlines repeated, “The devil did not want us to make this film, it was obvious.” Consider the adage that “the devil’s greatest trick is convincing the world he does not exist.” (JB)

The Exorcist (1973) William Peter Blatty – writer; William Freidkin directs

Rosemary’s Baby (1968) Ira Levin – writer; Roman Polanski directs

The Curse of Superman (1977 – Donner; et al.); Jerry Siegel – writer, Joe Shuster – artist

No such thing as a cursed movie, huh? How’d you like them apples? Yikes, those movies were devilishly frightening, exceptionally well-made and hugely popular with the public. True life can be scarier than fiction when “The Devil Rides Out!” and Satan’s minions have their time.

Note: The Devil Rides Out (1968) is an excellent and authentic production from Hammer Film Studios starring Christopher Lee and Charles Gray. The title is a direct nod to the manifestation and riding out of Satanic forces into the real world. The movie, based on Dennis Wheatley’s 1934 occult novel, deals with a black magic cult attempting to summon the Devil and bring his dark influence upon the world.